The Tampa Bay Buccaneers made a series of moves on Thursday that won't truly go into effect until March.
It was 10 signings in total, all of them players signed to what are known as "reserve/future" contracts. Eight of the 10 were players who finished the 2012 season on Tampa Bay's practice squad; all were essentially added to the team's 2013 offseason roster.
The 10 players signed (or re-signed) on Thursday were:
Player
Pos.
College
Sean Baker
S
Ball State
Andrew DePaolo
LS
Rutgers
Drake Dunsmore
TE
Northwestern
Joe Holland
LB
Purdue
Zach Miller
TE
Nebraska-Omaha
Ernest Owusu
DE
California
Mike Remmers
T
Oregon State
James Rogers
CB
Michigan
Nick Saenz
S
Houston
Adam Weber
QB
Minnesota
DePaolo and Miller are the two newcomers on the list, although DePaolo will be enjoying his second stint with the Buccaneers. He signed with the team in early August during training camp and spent three weeks on the roster before being waived on August 27. Miller, who shares a first and last name with a more well-known tight end who plays for the Seattle Seahawks, played in 33 games for the Jacksonville Jaguars from 2009-11, catching 45 passes for 470 yards and four touchdowns. He spent half of the 2012 season on injured reserve before being waived by the Jaguars in October.
The remaining eight players on the list comprised the team's practice squad at the end of the year. All practice squad players around the league immediately become free agents as soon as their respective teams' seasons are over, which mean Baker and company hit the open market on Monday. It is a common practice in Tampa for such players to be re-signed for the upcoming season; in fact, the late-season additions of such players as Rogers and Saenz may have been made with the 2013 season in mind.
On the other hand, players such as Dunsmore and Weber essentially spent all season on Tampa Bay's practice squad and are thus clearly prospects the team wants to see more of in 2013. Dunsmore was actually the Buccaneers' second seventh-round draft pick this past April. Weber may not have been on the active roster at any point this season, but he was quite busy running the scout team in practice, as is usually the province of a team's third quarterback. With the demise of the "inactive third quarterback" in 2011, many teams choose to keep that last passer on the practice squad rather than the active roster.
Remmers was on the practice squad for most of the season, having been added in Week Two. The others were late-season additions, although Baker had been with the team in training camp after signing as an undrafted free agent in the spring. Rogers, like DePaolo, was a mid-camp addition who was released near the end of the preseason.
"Reserve/future" contracts allow teams to sign available free agents to their rosters for the upcoming offseason before the actual league year begins. Only players who were not on an active NFL roster at the end of the 2012 season are eligible for such deals. Players who had contracts at the end of the year remain under those contracts until the new league year opens in March.
